1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an enclosure for telecommunications wiring devices and in particular to an enclosure capable of mounting a variety of wiring products and having a removable cover subassembly for facilitating access to wiring products in the enclosure.
2. Prior Art
Consolidation point enclosures are used to house telecommunications wiring products in a variety of applications (office, industrial, etc.). These enclosures are typically wall mounted and serve as a distribution point for telecommunications wiring and facilitate moving, adding or changing telecommunications wiring. The term "telecommunications" refers to voice, data, network and other applications and is intended to refer to a wide class of wiring applications and products. Such products include wire managers, outlets, connecting blocks and other components typically used in the telecommunications industry. Wiring and cabling as used herein are intended to refer to a variety of signal carrying devices including, but not limited to, copper wire, optical fiber, coaxial cable, etc.
Conventional consolidation point enclosures suffer from a number of drawbacks. The conventional consolidation point enclosure includes a cover subassembly having a base and a hinged cover. The cover subassembly is integral with the structure for mounting the telecommunications wiring products. The one piece design of these enclosures is difficult for the installer to work with. The one piece enclosure style reduces the amount of equipment installation, service, and access space. The cover subassembly can also interfere with access to the telecommunications wiring products mounted in the enclosure. The one piece design also makes it difficult to pull cable through the available access openings located on the sides of the enclosure.
In addition, conventional consolidation point enclosures are designed to receive a single type of telecommunications wiring products (e.g. 19" panels). The same enclosures usually only have a single level for installing 19" panel mounted equipment and usually do not have any mounting features for alternative wiring products (e.g. 110 type and 66 type wiring products). This limits the application of the conventional consolidation point enclosures and necessitates the purchase of application specific enclosures.